PILGRIMAGE: defined in the dictionary as a journey to a place revered for its associations. And it was with something of that feeling Spectator set forth on Saturday for Masham Sheep Fair, where this year the sheep were made of wood, metal, cardboard, raffia - anything but flesh and wool.

So had hundreds of others determined to support not only those bold enough to stage the event, but also the farming community, both in spirit and in cash. The proceeds were for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Association which is helping farmers affected by foot-and-mouth disease.

This was no half-hearted show. Stalls, fairground, the Bishop Blaize procession with silver band, longsword dancers, handbell ringers, craft stalls - all the normal trimmings were on hand. Even the sheep pens were in the market place, but this year they contained entries for the shepherd and sheep competition - dozens of them. What an imaginative selection they were too: sheep on their feet, their back, their bed, a pew, having their hair cut, being taught at school and lost in a cave.

Youngsters have been having a great time for schools and youth groups from Masham and the surrounding villages had entries, as had churches and businesses - and there wasn't an unused baa pun in the place.

Sympathy from further afield came in the shape of "sheep" from the Wharfedale cave and fell rescue association, a church in Leeds which has been praying for those caught up in the foot-and-mouth situation, Selby soroptimists and a branch of the Morris Minor club. In the face of so much effort and goodwill, Spectator's party declined to select one winner and put cash in seven of the buckets.

Laughs were raised with the virtual sheepdog trials in which the person being the dog wore a sheepdog mask and followed instructions from the handler to manoeuvre a push chair and sheep around the course and into a pen. A note of poignancy was added by the magnificent harvest displays in St Mary's and the Methodist churches; in the midst of celebrations of fruitfulness we remembered the barren fields.

But this was an upbeat event, making money for the afflicted, collecting names petitioning for an truly public and open inquiry and celebrating a togetherness of community and friends.

Reach for your diary, next year the fair is on September 28 and 29.

Thanks, Mr Michael

HAWES, with some 1,200 residents, now has no plumber and no electrician. Both have gone out of business since foot-and-mouth hit the countryside.

When the government minister, Mr Alun Michael, was given this example of the wide-ranging and non-agricultural effects of the disease during a recent visit to North Yorkshire, he didn't appear to show a great deal of sympathy, Coun John Blackie told Richmondshire District Council's foot-and-mouth working group.

Would it be horribly uncharitable to hope that Mr Michael finds himself, before too long and preferably late at night, with a burst and gushing pipe or a fuse-blowing but mysterious electrical fault - and no answer from the relevant skilled trade?

This loss of skills and businesses to a community is simply a variant on the "death of a thousand cuts" method of torture: seemingly small but successive injuries slowly and inexorably causing ultimate death.